Who's the Scariest?
by Nemrut
Summary: Taking an evening off, the four girls decide to ponder a most serious question. Who is the scariest person they know?


Taking another deep sip from my beer bottle, I let my gaze meet the eyes of my three room- and team-mates, all of us sitting around the small heater in the middle of their room.

"Okay, scariest person. Tiny sis, you go first" I didn't quit slur, but blended closer to each other than they did twenty minutes ago.

I was, interestingly enough, holding myself up much better than my little sister, who proved that with her next words.

"Weiss!" she giggled, her face as red as her cape, in which she had currently snuggled into. "When we met." At the exasperated look of her partner, Ruby relented. Despite what one might assume, in fact, despite what Ruby herself assumed, she wasn't drunk, only the first of her beers had contained alcohol, and preciously little at that. As in, not even one percent. She had eaten candy with more alcohol in them.

Being a responsible big sister, I had filled the other three bottles I had given my sister with alcohol-free beer. It tasted just as bad, but less chance of a drunk Ruby wielding the most dangerous weapon I had ever seen. Not to mention that Aura tended to burn alcohol out of your system unless one actively suppressed that, something I was sure Ruby didn't know how to do. However, my sweet little sister had herself gotten caught in the mood.

It was simply adorable and I had to force myself not to get up and hug Ruby and pinch her cute, little red cheeks.

"Okay, Uncle Crow. You should have seen him when I assembled the first model of my baby. I was a bit," Ruby paused, a finger drumming against her lips, searching for the right, disarming words to say that she had been a careless, trigger-happy maniac with no regards to the sanctity of life.

She finally settled for "enthusiastic, when I gave her the first dance and tried to make her sing."

Meaning she whirled the monstrosity of death around as well as her tiny arms could and then started shooting left and right.

"Turns out, I scarred a cat and nearly shot a mailman. And, uh, Uncle Crow didn't exactly like that. He looked at me, and spoke very slowly, and silently and scarily and I nearly peed my pre-combat skirt skirt."

There was no nearly about it, I had been the one at laundry duty that week, but there were things you just didn't tell others, no matter how funny they were. Don't get me wrong, Ruby had been careless and Uncle Crow had been well within his rights to tear Ruby a new one, as she could have killed someone, but she hadn't, no one was hurt and the image of twelve year old Ruby pissing herself, grasping her proto-Crescent Rose, a weapon bigger and heavier than she is, staring with her big eyes…it was just too funny.

Still, that's a secret of the family and it would remain one as long as Ruby did the same with some of the unfortunate things that happened to me.

Weiss, the other person next to me who could unexpectedly handle her drink, raised an eyebrow in the usual way of hers that made me envious. It just expressed the right mixture of 'are you serious' and 'I am so much better than you, why are you even trying'. I can be a tiny bit cocky at times as well but never could match her eyebrow game.

"Enthusiastic," she drawled, clearly not impressed, while Blake, her face flushed from alcohol looked appalled, although from the mental scaring of the cat or the near death of a human, I did not know.

"Ruby Rose, I am not surprised that you were a menace to society in your younger years."

She took a sip from her bottle, grimacing a bit. She clearly wasn't used to beer, or at least the sort of beer that someone like me could buy. She was probably always drinking some fancy wine or champagne or really old scotch or whatever it was rich folks drank at their balls or whatever.

Then again, Weiss was matching me bottle for bottle and showed no sign of slowing down. Before this evening, I had thought I was the most experienced drinker of Team RWBY. My precious little sister had always been more interested in weapons and the upkeep and maintenance of Crescent Rose ate up all of her money, so, she had never really gotten mixed up in all the bar culture and at times partying that I did on my excursions or when I hang out with my friend.

Blake, for all her past as a badass freedom fighter slash terrorist, was, surprisingly, nearly as inexperienced as Ruby. Probably had only taken a few token sips or whatever, with a blazing Aura to burn the alcohol away the second it passed her lips, maybe even sooner, in order to not dull her senses out of some sense of responsibility. I don't know, that's just my guess. I only knew that Blake was at her fourth bottle, and since she had disabled her Aura for now, she was red faced, slightly swaying and her eyes were jumping from person to person, her gaze lingering on each of us. Drunk Blake is an entertaining Blake, and I might fear for the virtue of my sister if I left them alone in a room. Probably should fear of the virtue of us all, at least what's left of it.

Oh, I am going to have so much fun with her tomorrow.

Weiss, though, she was drinking like a champ, using just enough of her Aura do burn off the worst of the effects, while still keeping a pleasant buzz, preventing hangovers or any negative reactions.

Heck, she was better at it than I was, since she was still able to enunciate perfectly. Drinking with Aura was a delicate act, after all, and required either a natural talent, great medical knowledge or experience. Not sure which of it applied here although I have never seen Weiss excel in first aid.

Not to mention I had five or so inches and roughly fifteen pounds of muscle on her, and yet, there she was. I was even drinking the stuff that had a lemon-y taste, nothing particularly alcohol heavy.

"Was not!" Ruby shot back, she then deflated, "well, not much. Like, not often. Hardly, really, not worth mentioning."

Oh, Rubes, you adorable little liar. Dad had his hands full with both of us. Still has, in a way. Even drunk Blake didn't look like she bought it, and I was pretty sure I could talk her into reading her _Ninjas of Love_ books out loud. Speaking of which.

"Moving right along, your turn, puss in boots."

Blake shot me a dirty look, and I blew a raspberry in return. I can't help it, I get a lot of kicks out of her glares, as I do with those of Weiss and Ruby. Guess I am just that blend of terrible person.

Meh, I can live with that.

Blake, speaking slowly, trying not to sound as drunk as she was, and hilariously and cutely failing, responded, "For me, I guess, it would be Goodwitch."

Everyone reflected on that, looking at the ground for a few seconds, taking synchronously a sip.

"Interesting choice, elaborate," said Weiss, waving with her free hand.

"Look at it this way, most of the weapons we use are either guns or melee weapons or, as in almost all cases, a combination of the two. Even seemingly useless items that serve as a camouflage before they turn into a real weapon, like Oobleck's thermos. Look at Ruby's weapon, it's the scariest weapon ever and it makes sense. You know why? Because Ruby is a sensible person. Because we are using them to fight an endless army soulless monsters that are slowly, but surely eradicating all of human life. What does a sensible person such as Ruby do? She takes a deadly weapon and forges and even deadlier weapon into it, combining the two to create a deadly monstrosity of death whose only purpose is to kill. We need scary weapons."

Here, she paused, to take a sip, while Ruby was pouting, murmuring something about how her little sweetheart was hardly scary.

We tend to ignore Ruby's romantic feelings for her weapon.

"But Goodwitch? She saw the same problem we are facing and she thought 'A riding crop will make due'."

Blake stopped to look each single one of us in the eye, her own golden eyes wider than usual.

"A god forsaken riding crop. Something you would have trouble killing a normal human with, let alone Grimm who are bigger, heavier, faster, more armored and clawed and can fly and are generally more deadly than your normal human."

Oh my god, she was ranting and brambling, this is so awesome. I can never go back to sober Blake.

"And the scary part is that it's all she needs to face the unholy abominations. She's making due with just that."

She paused, eyes even wider, her body by now leaning so much forward that she was practically over the heater.

She sat back, took a deep breath, and added, with much less force.

"Also, her stare is scary," she mumbled.

On that, we all agreed.

"She's truly scary."

"I nearly pee my combat skirt when she's lecturing me."

"No argument there. Woman could stare down a Death-Stalker."

Weiss and I exchanged glances and I nodded. Taking the cue, she began with her scary person.

"Definitely Ozpin. I've actually met him a few times before I came to Beacon. We weren't friends, or anything, but at the functions my family was either hosting or attending, he would be present rather often. I was introduced to him as a future student about a year before I came to Beacon, but I do remember seeing him there lots of times. Now that I think about it, Professor Goodwitch might have been there as well, although I have never made her acquaintance there."

She shook her head, taking a small sip afterwards before she continued talking. "Well, he was networking. Being the headmaster of the best academy for hunters and huntresses, and supplying his students and staff with the newest weapons, equipment and technology is expensive. So, he needs the support of firms like the Schnee Dust Company. My grandfather and father have both been donating there for years and a lot of the equipment we use here was manufactured by us. We are also the primary dust supplier. And you guys have never met the people who are leading all the major corporations. Those are real sharks, men and women who are more ruthless than Grimm. Those beasts, at least, are born evil, you know? They, in one way or another, have chosen to be that way. Those are the people that would sell their own parents for the tiniest amount of profit. I know of a few families who have done dirty deeds for money and power. Rich kids talk, you know, and even boast about stuff like this."

She paused, enjoying the dramatic effect, as the smile on her face indicated. I hate to say it, but the princess knows how to tell a story, as we were all hanging by her lips by now.

"Knowing that, I am sure you will understand the implication when I say that Ozpin has those people scared and bend over a barrel. Beacon is completely independent, he can do whatever he wants with, no firm, company or organization having a single say. They fear him, people. I do not know what Ozpin did or what he knows, or what he does, but they just give him money and stuff. Someone who has the most cut-throat, soulless and ruthless creatures in the world scared, has to be dangerous."

She gazed distantly out of the window, and lowered her voice to a whisper. She was really enjoying this.

"I fear for the day that my father will tell me the secret of the hold that Ozpin has over the richest people in all the kingdoms. That I, too, will fall under his thrall."

Ruby, her eyes as wide as saucer plates, both hands grasping her battle, her mouth wide open, eeped and in a flurry of roses hurled herself at Weiss, totally ruining the dignified and tortured pose of mystery that Weiss had so carefully build.

"Don't worry Weiss, we will help you!"

Weiss, obviously mad that her five minutes of coolness and dignity had been ruined, tried to shove Ruby away.

"Let go of me, you dunce!" she looked at me, a pleading look in her eyes.

I rolled my eyes, leaned forward, grabbed Ruby by her collar and pulled her away.

She struggled, her feet and arms wailing and whirling and by a small miracle not hitting the heater. I let her fall on her seat and poked her forehead.

"You know the rules, Rubes, no glomping while drinking."

She crossed her arms, grabbing her bottle again before nursing her pride.

Well, time for the star of the evening.

"Okay, thank you Weiss. Thanks to all of you. We enjoyed your choices and they were fine choices. Valid, in many cases and sound. Well argued, even. However, while they are scary, they are not the scariest person alive. That person is-,"

Blake, in a surge of pettiness, interrupted me, "oh please Yang, let me guess, you are?"

Before I could respond, she continued, "Unless you are talking about the smell of your socks after a training session, because that is indeed horribly scary. But you? Not very much, sorry." She took a sip that I assumed was supposed to be victorious but instead ended up being adorable as the bottle first hit her nose before she managed to navigate it to her mouth.

"What do you mean I am not scary?" I asked, slightly offended. I mean, I wasn't going to name myself, of course, even I wasn't that vein, but me, not being scary? That was just insulting. I was plenty scary.

"Have to agree there," Weiss added, a triumphant grin on her face, as her face rested on her palm. "I mean, I have seen you eat yourself into unconsciousness when we had pizza day last month. The only thing scary about that was the fact that you could eat nearly two big pizzas before you fell into a food coma hibernation."

"I had a good workout before and I also didn't eat anything on that day to have room for the good stuff!"

Two of my teammates whom I had supported unconditionally and with great love have betrayed me, but I know I am not alone, I have my sweet sister on my side, who would never abandon me. Family never does and in the end, it's the only thing you can depend on. The sacred bond of sisterhood is indestructible and eternal, especially in face of adversity.

I shot a pleading look at her, looking for her help, love and support. For salvation.

The tiny, red traitor snickered before saying, "Sorry Yang, you cried whenever your favorite boy bands broke up. Hard to be scared of such a person."

Oh, that little brat was going down.

"It was a distressing time of my life, okay! I was young and emotionally compromised."

But her treachery didn't end there.

"The last time you cried was three weeks ago, when Wreck 55 broke up."

This caused all three of to break out into giggles, Blake even laughing so hard she fell on her back.

My fed was red, I knew it. Okay, so I liked boy bands and preferred to bond with them on an emotional level, since that's where their excellent music connected with my soul. Sue me.

"Ruby, darling little sis," I hissed through my teeth, which stopped her laughter, recognizing the signs of what was going to come. "Your mouth is surprisingly large for such a short girl. I would say it makes up for about half your body weight."

I stood up and Ruby started to backpedal, literally, as she tried to create some distance, still giggling. Weiss and Blake meanwhile, were laughing even harder, Blake especially had started to get hiccups.

I would note how cute that was later when I wasn't feeling mildly embarrassed.

"Well, why the rush to distance yourself from your sister, Ms. I "nearly" peed my combat skirt?"

"Yaaaaang!" she half wailed and half laughed, but undeterred, I grabbed the little tattletale and started to tickle her.

"Betray your big sister, why don't you." she laughed even harder, without pause. One of the many adorable aspects of my traitorous sister was that she was incredibly ticklish, something that I exploited when she behaved like that to her poor, older sister.

I tickled her for roughly a minute before she cried uncle. In my limitless generosity I let her go, messing up her hair, while she tried to get her breath back, still snickering from time to time.

The other two, in the meantime, had gotten their mirth under control, still grinning. I grinned back, because, let's face it, it was rather funny and if the situations had been reversed you can bet your ass I would have been laughing just as hard.

"If you heathens are finished making fun of my excellent taste in music, we can go back to topic."

"The topic of you being as scary as a teddy bear?" asked Weiss, her face a picture of innocence.

I threw my pillow at her which Blake, caught in mid-air. I was less surprised that she protected Weiss and more that she still had the hand-eye coordination to do so, especially since she had apparently opened another beer during Ruby's just and merciful punishment.

"When did this become the 'let's bully Yang meeting'?" I asked in a mature voice that did not resemble a whine.

Yang Xiao Long doesn't whine. Fact.

Weiss rolled with her eyes, and waved her dainty little princess hand. "Oh get on with it, you big baby."

Luckily, I was sitting right in front of a bed with several pillows, I grabbed another one and hurled it at Weiss, since that seemed to be a better comeback than anything I could say right now. This time, though, I hurled it quite a bit harder. Sober Blake would have been able to intercept that one as well, with ease, but drunk Blake flailed her hand like a whip and missed by a margin, causing the pillow to hit the heiress right in the face, getting a cute grasp out of her.

Ruby giggled and Blake, despite having tried to protect her partner in crime, also laughed at the sound.

Really, Weiss could be so adorable at times, it was simply precious.

"Now, silence, you ungrateful jerks," I said, as I started my tale. "As I said, the scariest person is not anyone you have mentioned. And no, it is also not me, although I do think I can be plenty scary when I want to."

"Like when she sings in the shower," Ruby stage-whispered, causing all three snicker, Weiss even let out an undignified snort.

Ignoring the backstabbing little sister, I continued.

"No, my friends, the scariest person is a member of Team JNPR and it is Ren."

That made them pause.

"The hell is so scary about Ren?" asked Weiss, confused. "He is quiet, yes, but that doesn't make him scary. In fact, that's a quality I wish more people in my team shared…"

"Yeah, Ren isn't scary," Ruby agreed, either ignoring Weiss' jab which had targeted her as much as it had me or simply not getting it, being pseudo drunk on the belief of being drunk. "He is nice and polite," here, she paused lowering her voice, as if she feared that Ren might hear her next words, forcing us to lean over so that we could make out what she said. "Also, we can all kick his ass."

Blake, a bit confused as well, slurred her next words, "He can make Nora kick our asses."

That was a fair point, we all nodded, Nora was strong and insane enough to eke out a win here and there against my lesser teammates and even someone as invincible as I can have an off-day.

Before I put their confusion to rest, I grabbed Blake's beer though, and pressed her water bottle in her head.

"That's enough for you today, sweetie." I said, not actually wanting Blake to wake up with a hangover tomorrow. Sure, it would have been a learning experience but having to live with her actions of tonight forever living on in our memories would be punishment enough. "Also, you should activate your Aura, slowly though."

I am no chemist but if you burn it away too fast, it can cause a bit of a whiplash, doing it slowly over the course of thirty seconds or so, depending on how much you drank, is the best course. Naturally, Aura is no substitute for good hydration.

Thankfully, Blake was still well trained enough to do so. Impressively, she also only used it enough to get rid of the worse parts of her drunkenness. That was impressive self-control for a first time drunk, but then again, it might just as well have been a lucky try.

"Nora is actually the core of this argument," I said, before taking a large sip from Blake's old bottle.

"We all love Nora, right? She is awesome."

There was some general agreement.

"Yes, love her. She is so much fun."

"Impeccable taste in clothing and color."

"Sweetest girl in the world.

"But, let's face it, she is also slightly bat-shit insane."

The other concurred with that as well.

"Totally bonkers."

"Oh god, yes."

"Very much so."

I put down the bottle. "Here is the thing, Ren has been best friends with her for years, over a decade even. Ten years, living in close proximity with Nora, probably seeing her every days, for hours."

I paused, letting that particular information sink in.

"Ten years of Nora and look at him."

And suddenly, they understood. They gasped.

"Yes, now, there are two explanations. He is a saint, having the patience and willpower of a god. Nothing can anger him, nothing can disrupt his concentration. If he were to take things seriously or we became his enemies somehow he would destroy us. What chance do we have against someone who has stared into the abyss and came out unchanged?"

They were hanging on my words now, my smile widened.

"Or, the second explanation, he broke years ago, and the Ren of today is a shattered human being but who has learned to fake normality frighteningly well. What devious and insane schemes did a mind like that cook up? What torments could he unleash? We just don't know. We know nothing, ladies, and that is what makes Ren the scariest bastard alive."

I concluded my presentation and bowed to graciously accept the applause.

"Well argued," complimented Weiss.

"Yeah, great job, sis." agreed Ruby, accompanied by solemn nod by Blake, who, by now, had stopped swaying and had finished her glass of water. She also desperately tried to appear dignified and not like someone who had been rather drunk not even two minutes ago.

"Or they are just good friends who can live with the others' quirks and we wildly exaggerated."

"Always a possibility," I agreed, "who knows?"

We sat in comfortable silence for a minute, each of us nursing our drinks. Ruby, following Blake's lead had switched to water, and after blaring her Aura for a second, noticing that she didn't change a bit, started throwing dirty looks at me, probably realizing the whole no alcohol thing.

I winked at her, ruffling her hair. She surrendered, knowing that any resistance would just lead to a hug. Aw, what the hell, I'm gonna hug her anyway. I can't stay mad at that much cuteness.

I told her that, and with a resignation of someone who knows about the inevitability of ones fate, she endured as I crushed her in an hug, lifting her of the ground.

"My baby sister, all grown up now, drinking with her big sister," I cried, whirling her around her a bit.

"You suck, Yang," she complained unfairly, showing once again that I had inherited all the grace of the family.

"I'll drink to that, snarked Weiss, finishing her bottle. Seriously, where the girl learn to drink like that? I had always assumed that being rich meant piano lessons and etiquette lessons and stuff like that. That's what I told myself to say that I am better off not being rich. But if it involves learning to fight as well and Weiss does and getting wasted a lot on expensive booze, well, clearly I have been missing out.

"Yeah, you gotta tell me why you know how to drink like a sailor, miss alcoholic."

"The balls I told you about, most of us kids just migrated to another part of the mansion and since we generally hate each other, not much else to do but drink." She shrugged, "and since it is a terrible idea to stumble back into a room full with the richest people in vale super drunk, one learns fast to use your Aura to drink right."

She shot me a challenging smile, "You think you are all that because you sneaked a few cheap beers from your dad's fridge when he was sleeping? Please Yang, you are an amateur compared to me."

Oooh, that sounded like a challenge to me.

"Them's fighting words, girl," I said, dropping Ruby who let out a small squeak, "Care to back up that trash talk?

"As if an uncouth idiot like you would even be a challenge. I don't particularly want to embarrass you in front of our team."

My grin widened, as I stepped forwards, now standing right in front of Weiss.

"Let that be my worry, unless big talk is all a Schnee has to offer."

She bristled at those words, by now standing as well. She tried to stare me down but our height difference made that difficult for her. Her eyes were now narrowed in a glare.

"A Schnee never backs down from a fight!" she hissed, her ponytail swaying with her head movements.

"Terms?"

It was on, and there was no way either of us was going to back down. This is going to be awesome.

Xxxxx

It had been terrible, which should have come as no surprise to anyone. Ruby was still laughing when she remembered what had happened after we had both halved our bottles of hard liquor, Aura's blazing.

Turns out, we had both overestimated out Aura control, our good judgment and the width of the door to the toilet when we had both sprung up to sprint to the bathroom, only to ran into each other. Thankfully, me being bigger and having more mass and weight had meant that Weiss had been thrown aside with a squeal, something I would have found hilarious if I didn't have to puke at that moment.

Luckily, Weiss' anger at being pushed aside like that had given her some control and she had raced after me.

And after we had finished our business there, neither of us had been in a condition to squabble. We decided to crawl back into our beds and try to ignore everything that had happened.

Fun fact, just like with raw damage, enough alcohol with fluctuating control will overwhelm Aura. Similarly, neither Weiss, nor me were as badass as we thought we were, so there was that.

Still, totally worth it.


End file.
